Summertime
by Jdogg1264
Summary: One-shot: Somehow, he knew this summer would be far more interesting than the last. Dasey


Summertime had finally come

**A/N: ****Hey everybody; it's good to be back! I just realized how long it's been since I've posted anything on here. I've been busy trying to get my grades up so I can transfer to a state school. I finally got some time to myself now, so I'm posting a story for you guys that I wrote over a year ago. Sorry it took so long and for the fact that I'm posting it in the fall (you'll get it as soon as you start reading!), but I'm a huge procrastinator. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I do not own the characters of Life with Derek, but i do own this story idea!  
**

Summertime had finally come. The time for everybody to stop stressing over grades and finally relax. A time for even the most uptight people to let loose and have fun. A time where everything is supposed to be at peace, the atmosphere full of jubilance and joy. A time to say goodbye to those dreaded school days and hello to the beauty of the earth that shines with the summer season.

For Derek, this was much the way he saw everyday of his life. He was satisfied with going about a worry free routine while everyone else around him went about their busy schedules. He thought that now was the best chance he would get to fully engulf himself in his life, and enjoy the time he could before responsibility gave him an uppercut to the jaw. He felt this time, his high school years were the best opportunity to actually "live" his life.

And live he did.

That is, until the unthinkable occurred, something that completely threw his world upside down. Something he thought he would be able to avoid his entire life. The one thing Derek thought impossible for him up until this point.

Derek fell **hard** for a girl. A girl named Casey Macdonald.

He didn't know what had caused his feelings to grow. From the very moment he had met the girl, he had the obsessant need to pick on her as much as possible. He thought it was because she was the easiest target for his insults that he had ever met. That she was just begging for him to make fun of her for her clumsiness.

It didn't occur to him until she started dating Sam that he was just trying to get her attention and hold it for as long as he could. Even during Casey and Sam's little fling, Derek would incessantly butt into every conversation they had, finding any way possible to get Casey's mind off Sam. It got to a point where it put a gigantic strain on their relationship, something Derek felt both proud and guilty about. Proud that he had put distance between Casey and Sam, but guilty because he was just hurting Casey in the end anyway.

After she had broken up with Sam, while he was still trying to figure out his feeling, Derek took a different approach to Casey. He decided that he would lay off the insults a bit, and try to be nice to her in the best way Derek knew how. Slowly but surely, Derek started to do good deeds for Casey, things he wouldn't normally have done had she been just a stepsister to him. He had helped expose a manipulative guy that was taking advantage of her; helped smooth things over between her and her father, and even had taken the heat from the principal for a prank she had pulled off. He figured these signs, these acts of good faith, were enough to let her know just how much he cared about her. Much to his dismay though, Casey was oblivious to all of it.

It wasn't until their senior year came along that any recognition from Casey had actually started to show. He had persisted in his goal of being as nice as possible to her, that his attitude overall had started to change; he become more polite to everybody, had become less arrogant with his reputation, and had even started to focus more with his education. This caught Casey's attention, who carefully watched as Derek went from the egotistical prick he had been, into the kind, thoughtful being that walked in his shoes today.

As the school year went on, Derek noticed a change in Casey's behavior as well. She stopped in his room more frequently to borrow an item or to ask him for small favors. When she talked to him now, she stuttered and tripped on her words a lot more, and would leave more often than not with a blush on her face after talking with Derek. He couldn't help smiling at her awkward behavior after a conversation with him. But he still wasn't sure what it meant between them. He didn't want to make a fool of himself by confronting her; it would make living in that house with her unbearable. All he could do was sit idly by, knowing his feelings for her would never go away, instead blossoming with a growing intensity every day. Before he knew it, she was all he was able to think about. When he woke up in the morning, the first thing he did was find a way to run into her throughout her morning routine, whether it was to return something he purposely took from her room just to give him a reason to enter, or to pull a small prank. Every so often, he felt it necessary to still get on her nerves. It just wasn't any fun constantly trying to be nice to her. The games went on for him until the first day of summer came after his junior year.

Derek woke up rather early that morning with the sun beating down in his face through the open blinds upon his window. He sat in his bed for awhile, stretching his various limbs until his body felt in complete harmony before he focused his attention on the outside world. He listened for the noises of the rest of the family; he heard George and Nora arguing about the formation of the furniture downstairs, heard Edwin and Lizzie bickering about what to do that day, and he heard Marti running around in her room playing "princesses" for the fifth consecutive day. The only one he didn't hear anything from was Casey, which was strange. Normally she would be running around the entire second floor, desperately looking for her missing hairbrush which disappeared every morning, which Derek would magically find in a different spot everyday (it was often the item he had taken from her room to begin with). Derek crawled out of bed and headed toward Casey's room. When he got there, he found her at her computer desk, still in her pajamas and her hair up in a ponytail, silently reading a book.

"Jesus Christ, Case. Its summer and you can't find anything better to do besides reading?" Derek asked in a half serious tone. He knew Casey was a dork, but he couldn't fathom how anyone would want to do "school" stuff on summer vacation.

"Well, unlike you Derek, not everybody thinks that education is a complete waste of time" she shot back in a mocking tone, not once glancing up from her book. She knew if she let him distract her, he would just continue to bug her, knowing he was getting under her skin. Derek smirked at her answer.

"Actually, I think it's just cause you have nothing better to do with your day" Derek said with an arrogant tone. He leaned against her doorframe, waiting for a retort from her. When none came, and he believed his suspicions true, he got an idea. Even now when she looked like she had just woken up and clambered across her room to read, she looked incredibly beautiful. He decided he didn't want to waste this opportunity.

"Well, seeing as how your schedule is empty, why don't you come see a movie with me?" he asked nonchalantly, appearing calm and collect on the outside, but inside he was giddy. Casey glared at him.

" Are you asking me on a date?" Casey asked, eyeing him suspiciously.

"Well, if you want to think of it that way, then yeah" Derek said, smirk still upon his face, shoving his hands in his pockets, leaning against her wall. He would do anything to get rid of the nervous feeling that had just skyrocketed within him. Instead of getting any kind of relief, he got a harsh shove from Casey into her closet door.

"What the hell was that for?!" he asked, rubbing the back of his head in pain, which had struck the door from the shove. Casey's face flared with anger.

"How dare you ask me on a pity date?! Is that your idea of some kind of sick joke?!" she shouted, her voice tearing up toward the end. Derek, completely befuddled by her reaction, tilted his head.

"Wait a minute Case, that's not what I…" he attempted, but was met with a hard slap to his face.

" You are a complete ass! After all we've been through, we're right back to where we started!" she said, turning her back on him. He rubbed the side of his face, looking at her back. He could hear it in her voice, on that last sentence, she had started to cry.

"Casey, I…" he started, taking a step towards her.

"Save it Derek! I'll have you know I already have plans with Ralph tonight! Go play your stupid games on somebody who gives two shits about you!" she said harshly, her voice completely broken by now. She didn't look up at him and see the hurt that adorned his eyes then. Instead, she kept her head down as he slowly walked out of the room, slamming the door on his way out. Once he had left, she crumbled into a mess upon her bedroom floor, sobbing quietly to herself. Somehow, she had deceived herself into thinking things were different between them now. She was wrong; they were right back to where they had started, where the two of them hated each other.

Much later on that evening, Casey walked in the front door, an irritated look upon her face, heaving a sigh as she dropped her purse by the floor. Lizzie, who was sitting on the couch watching television with Edwin, spotted her first.

"How'd the date with Ralph go?" she asked.

"It could've been more fun had Ralph paid more attention to his date than the pinball machine" she said, causing Edwin to laugh.

"That's what happens when you date Derek's friends" he said, popping his head up from the couch for a second. Casey didn't answer, opting to head straight upstairs to her room. She wanted to go straight to sleep, forget the date and the guilt she held for going off on Derek today. She hadn't been thinking clearly when she yelled at him; she was on emotion overload. Truth was she really did care about him, a lot.

Upon entering her room, what Casey saw made her stop in her tracks and her jaw drop. At the foot of her bad was a bouquet of beautiful white lilies with a small note on the front of it. Lilies were her favorite flower, but she had told rarely anybody about that. On top of the bouquet was a small note in scrawled handwriting she instantly recognized, saying…

_I wasn't joking_

She took a few more moments to gaze at the small note, then the flowers before she slowly walked out her door and into the hall. Within a moment, she was outside of his room, knocking quietly on the door. A moment later, he was standing silently in his doorway, looking at her curiously.

"I'm sorry" she blurted out before she could stop herself. She kept her eyes trained on the ground floor, her head lowered in guilt. Derek sat there quietly, still gazing at her in the same manner.

"I didn't mean to say what I said earlier. I was just…" she started to explain, but stopped when Derek lifted her chin, bringing his lips to hers. Casey's eyes went wide, but drifted closed at the soft, warm feel of his lips. He roughly pulled her closer to him, softly biting her bottom lip in a pleasing manner. After a nice long taste of her tongue, he pulled away slightly. He smirked at her.

"Right back where we started? Come on Case, I could've sworn we've made some progress" he joked, before he walked past her to the stairs, leaving her dumbfounded, staring at him in shock. As he walked down the stairs, a smile crept upon Derek's face.

Somehow, he thought to himself, that this summer would be far more interesting than the last.

_The End_

**A/N: ****Thanks for reading everybody! I'm glad to finally have a chance to be writing these stories for all of you again. I'd appreciate reviews to let me know how I'm progressing. Thanks for all your support!**

**-Jimmy**


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